In recent years, devices each having an electronic dictionary and an electronic dictionary application function have been widely prevalent. The electronic dictionary or an electronic dictionary application stores a content, and based on a search instruction from a user, a selected item is displayed from the content such as dictionary data registered in advance. Hereinafter, the electronic dictionary and the device having the electronic dictionary application function will be collectively referred to as an “electronic dictionary”.
Currently, many of the electronic dictionaries have had not only a function of searching an item but also various additional functions. For example, an electronic dictionary having a vocabulary notebook function has been known. The vocabulary notebook function is a function of registering an index word of the dictionary specified by the user, and all or part of description information corresponding to the index word. Also, there is an electronic dictionary having a marker function. The marker function is a function of performing processing of changing a display form such as a half-tone dot meshing and underline to a display character string specified by the user.
Moreover, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-207754 (Patent Literature 1), there is disclosed an electronic dictionary system that registers supplementary data such as an image and handwriting data in association with each index word of the dictionary. In this system, an icon indicating that the supplementary data is registered is displayed, when the index word with the corresponding supplementary data registered is specified. Pressing the icon allows this system to display the registered supplementary data. Furthermore, this system sequentially outputs the supplementary data registered corresponding to the index words, and also displays the index word corresponding to the selected supplementary data, when one piece of the outputted supplementary data is selected.
In many of the devices, a handwriting input device has been included. In Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-312257 (Patent Literature 2), there is disclosed a portable information collecting apparatus including a CCD camera, an input-display incorporated tablet and a flash memory. When an image is taken by the CCD camera, this apparatus displays the taken image on a screen of the tablet with a blank space. The user performs handwriting input on the screen on which the taken image is displayed. The apparatus stores the taken image data, and ink data of a handwritten character, line drawing and the like at an address of the flash memory associated with one another. The apparatus overwrites the ink data associated with the image data in the image data to redisplay on the tablet.
An image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-328451 (Patent Literature 3) displays image data obtained from a scanner or the like, and handwriting data in a superimposed manner on a display unit. Moreover, the image forming apparatus outputs synthetic data, in which the image data and the handwriting data are synthesized, to another information processing apparatus through a fax, an electronic mail or the like.